Suspect Denied Bond In Alleged Drug Smuggling

Women, Babies Used As Decoys, U.s. Says

December 28, 1999|By Matt O'Connor, Tribune Staff Writer.

A federal magistrate judge refused Monday to release on bond an alleged key figure in a drug-smuggling operation that authorities said used young women to smuggle cocaine from Jamaica by having them swallow capsules containing the drug.

The same operation also smuggled cocaine from Panama by hiding it in liquid form inside formula cans and using infants and mothers as decoys to fool U.S. customs officials, authorities have said.

At a hearing in federal court Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Sidney Schenkier ordered Corey Holmes, 22, of Chicago, who is alleged to have sold the cocaine on the South Side, held pending trial. Schenkier said he declined to release Holmes on bond because the defendant is a flight risk and a danger to society.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Scott Levine disclosed in court that Holmes had been implicated in the cocaine operation by his brother, Leon.

Leon Holmes was arrested in the case last month on the same day he was scheduled to be released from a Downstate prison after completing a 4-month sentence for assaulting a U.S. Customs Service inspector.

Leon Holmes has admitted to authorities he tried to smuggle narcotics through O'Hare International Airport in September 1998 by ingesting 15 cocaine-filled capsules in Jamaica, according to Levine.

After agreeing to have his abdomen X-rayed by suspicious customs officials at O'Hare, Leon Holmes bolted from a hospital emergency room, knocking a customs inspector down and escaping.

Four women--including one student from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign--have told authorities that Leon Holmes recruited them to smuggle cocaine in their bodies from Jamaica for as little as $300 each, Levine said.

On their return to Chicago, the women handed over the cocaine to Corey Holmes, who according to his brother was responsible for its sale on South Side streets, authorities said.

In arguing for detention, Levine said another witness had picked out a photo of Corey Holmes as the man who fired several shots into the house of a government witness.

Another individual threw an ax at a window of the courier's home during that same assault, authorities said.

A day or two after authorities obtained a warrant for Corey Holmes' arrest late last month, he led police on a 90 m.p.h. chase, running repeated stop signs through crowded streets in Chicago in midafternoon, Levine said.

Authorities cut off the chase out of concern over public safety, Levine said, but Holmes was arrested Dec. 16.